---
title: "Six Against Four"
description: "A match where one side always has two more players: the six learn to find the free player and pass forward, the four learn when to keep the ball on their own."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/six-v-four
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Six Against Four

> A match where one side always has two more players: the six learn to find the free player and pass forward, the four learn when to keep the ball on their own.

U8 to U13 · 12 to 12 players · 25 × 30 m · 16 min

Also called Double agent, Keep it or share it?, Dribbel-Team.

![Diagram of Six Against Four](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/six-v-four)

## How to play

1. Mark a pitch 25 metres wide and 30 metres long with a goal and a keeper at each end. Two teams of five outfield players and a keeper.
2. Play in blocks of 4 minutes. In each block one team lends a player to the other, so it is six against four; in the next block the other team lends one. Lend a different player each time.
3. Play a normal game; each goal is a point. When the ball goes out at the side, pass or dribble it back in. When it goes over the end line, the keeper restarts.
4. Add nothing else: no touch limits, no special rules. The uneven numbers are the whole design.

## The decision it trains

Both sides face the same question, keep the ball or pass it, and get opposite answers. With six against four someone is always free, so the player on the ball looks past the nearest teammate for the free one further forward, and passes before the four can shift across. Dribbling into a crowd wastes the extra players. The four rarely have a pass on, so the player on the ball has to keep it alone: shield it, turn away from pressure, dribble into a gap and wait for a teammate to arrive, or drive at the space behind when the six have pushed up. Within a few blocks every player has played on both sides, so every player learns both answers.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard for the four:** widen the pitch to 30 metres, so there is more room to hide the ball, and let their keeper come out to join the play.
- **Too easy for the six:** narrow the pitch to 20 metres, and let a goal by the four count two.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "In the six, how did you find the free player?"
- "In the four, when did you keep the ball yourself, and when did you pass?"
- "What changed in the way you played when your team went from six to four?"

## Where it comes from

The FA documents it in its England Football Learning sessions as "Keep it or share it?" (2022), shared by Sally Needham, a former FA county coach developer. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- The FA (United Kingdom): Keep it or share it?
- Football Australia (Australia)
- Canada Soccer (Canada)
- Danish FA (DBU) (Denmark)
- US Youth Soccer (United States)
- Japan's Ministry of Education (MEXT) (Japan)
- Sport Australia (Australia): Double agent
- Massachusetts Youth Soccer (United States)
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): Dribbel-Team, Bonuszone
- FIFA Training Centre (International)

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "Article",
      "headline": "Six Against Four",
      "description": "A match where one side always has two more players: the six learn to find the free player and pass forward, the four learn when to keep the ball on their own.",
      "url": "https://hobbit.football/drills/six-v-four",
      "mainEntityOfPage": "https://hobbit.football/drills/six-v-four",
      "inLanguage": "en",
      "publisher": {
        "@type": "Organization",
        "@id": "https://hobbit.football/#organization",
        "name": "Hobbit",
        "alternateName": "Hobbit AI",
        "url": "https://hobbit.football",
        "logo": {
          "@type": "ImageObject",
          "url": "https://hobbit.football/icon-512.png"
        },
        "sameAs": [
          "https://x.com/pc_hobbit"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}
```